Ambassador Everett Ellis Briggs
Much has been made of the agreement brokered by Cardinal Jaime Ortega, with Spain’s pro-Castro Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos playing a supporting role, to secure the release 52 Cuban prisoners of conscience. You’d almost think the Castro brothers finally had seen the light and were ready to play by the rules of the civilized world.
You’d be wrong. These prisoners, mostly independent journalists who never should have been arrested, are a fraction of the estimated 2,000 victims of the Castro regime languishing in Cuba’s notorious lockups for such crimes as “dangerousness.” The lucky 52 are to be released in small numbers over an indeterminate period. The first seven arrived in Spain this month.
The agreement came only months after the hunger-strike death of a fellow prisoner, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, and in the midst of a second hunger strike, by Guillermo Farinas, that seemed destined for the same tragic outcome. They were protesting the inhumane conditions of Cuba’s prisons. The outcry of many, especially in Europe, over the callousness of the regime’s response to Zapata’s death may have been the catalyst for the agreement sought by the cardinal and his Spanish partner. In any case, the released prisoners have credited Zapata with having sacrificed his life for their freedom.
Their release is being hailed by advocates of a policy of accommodation with the Castro regime in the United States and the European Union as signaling a dramatic improvement within the Cuban government. Mora- tinos has declared now is the time for the EU to lift its restrictions on business with Cuba, and to respect Cuba’s insistence the EU cease all contacts with Cuba’s dissidents.
In this country, big business is renewing its push for Congress to lift restrictions on credit sales of agricultural goods to Cuba (now amounting to 80 percent of Cuba’s imports, but only on a cash basis) and on tourism, even though both would benefit the regime economically and in the case of credit sales, shift a huge financial risk to U.S. taxpayers.
A few cautionary voices have been raised, but our media have all but ignored them. Most dramatic are what the released prisoners are saying: On top of having been subjected to eight years of unspeakable treatment merely for advocating democracy and engaging in nonviolent opposition to the regime, they have been forced against their will into foreign exile. This, they point out, is another gross violation of internationally agreed basic human rights. So far, nine not yet released have gone so far as to say they’d rather stay in prison than be forced to leave Cuba.
According to Yale professor Carlos Eire, the former prisoners now in Spain are being subjected to heavy-handed treatment by the authorities. Kept in virtual isolation in a remote section of Madrid (Vallecas), they soon will be dispersed to interior towns despite their wish to remain together. The government says it will attend to their basic needs for 24 months. After that, in a country with 20 percent unemployment, they will be on their own.
To those who want to reward the Cuban government for what amounts to a cruel follow-up to eight years of abusive treatment of innocent people, with no sign Raul or Fidel are ready to allow any meaningful reforms of a system that depends exclusively on their warped whims, the basic question is: Why? What is it that would be accomplished?
Much has been claimed about the potentially positive political impact of U.S. tourists flocking to Cuba’s pristine reserved-for-foreigners beaches and other tourist attractions. That millions of non-American tourists have had no discernible effect on Cuba, other than to provide needed foreign currency to the regime and its military/security apparatus, simply is ignored.
Maybe it’s wishful thinking that obscures the obvious: The Cuban government is not about to lift its iron-fisted control that keeps tabs on visitors and ensures they do not infect its citizens with notions the Castro brothers find troublesome. Remember the hapless American Alan Gross, still in jail after seven months, accused of giving a laptop to a Cuban friend?
The Gross case is but one of a very long list of legitimate U.S. grievances that logic and good diplomacy would dictate need to be addressed before any talk of accom- modation (or “normalization”) takes place.
Just a sampling: Cuba provides refuge to a wanted New Jersey cop-killer. It has bestowed medals on the murderers of U.S. citizens whose unarmed aircraft were shot down in cold blood in the Florida Straits in the early 1990s. It owes U.S. citizens billions of dollars of stolen property. Its espionage activities in the United States are a matter of record.
Let us by all means celebrate the release of any Cuban victims of the Castro brothers’ tyranny, but let us also keep in mind the continuing reality of a Cuban regime that merits no rewards, only condemnation.
The Castros, ancient, infirm and unbending, may be able to hold on a bit longer, but surely their days are numbered. Patience remains the watchword until real change comes to Cuba. That’ll be the time to reach out to agents for democratic change in the island.
Everett Ellis Briggs is a Cuban-born retired diplomat who served as a special national-security adviser to President George H.W. Bush.
